Two backcountry snowmobilers were caught and buried in an avalanche which occurred Saturday, January 7, 2023, just southwest of Rollins Pass at Pumphouse Lake in Winter Park. According to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center’s Accident Summary, the avalanche occurred at around 2 p.m. on the east face of Mount Epworth, at an elevation of 11,600 feet on a slope of 35 degrees.

Another party in the area was able to locate one of the buried snowmobilers via an avalanche transceiver; a member of the party attempted to resuscitate the victim with CPR but was unsuccessful. Despite search and rescue efforts by the Grand County Sheriff’s Office throughout daylight hours on Saturday, the second victim of the avalanche, who unfortunately was not wearing a transceiver, has yet to be recovered and is presumed dead as of the reporting of this incident, on Sunday, January 8.

Colorado Avalanche Information Center staff visited the accident site on January 8 in order to assess the situation and therefore deliver an official final report within the next week.

This accident marks the third and fourth fatalities of Colorado’s 2022/2023 winter season due to avalanches. One avalanche was inadvertently started by a skier on December 31, 2022, which lead to a fatality at Carter Gulch, southwest of Breckenridge, and another avalanche on December 26, 2022, inadvertently triggered by backcountry travelers which resulted in a fatality at Nitro Chute, north of Berthoud Pass.

There have been reported fatalities at Pumphouse Lake in the past, with two snowmobilers being buried and killed by an avalanche that began on Mount Trelease on February 14, 2021.

For more information please go to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center’s website at: https://avalanche. state.co.us/accidents/colorado.